Automated Spiritual Research, Reflection, and Community System and Method

ABSTRACT

A computerized system and method are presented that provide access to three data collections that can form the foundations of a spiritual journey, namely a research archive for researching fundamental texts of a variety of spiritual and religious domains, a personal reflection data collection for reflecting upon a personal life journey, and a community conversation data collection that provides users with an opportunity to explore the research archive and their personal reflections in a social community setting. The research archive is oriented around ideas having snippets from the fundamental texts. The various elements in the data collections are associated with life issue tags and religious or spiritual domains. By analyzing a user&#39;s selected domain or the domain of displayed content, and by analyzing the life issue tag associated with displayed content, the system and method can suggest related content from elsewhere in the data collections.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/832,249, filed on Mar. 15, 2013, which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present application relates to the field of computerized systemsthat automate the process of spiritual research and recordation of apersonal spiritual journey.

SUMMARY

An embodiment of the present invention provides one or more servercomputer systems that provide access to three data collections that canform the foundations of a spiritual journey. The server computer systemsprovide access to a research archive for researching fundamental textsof a variety of spiritual and religious domains. The computer systemsalso provide an ability to plan, record, and reflect upon a personallife journey in a form that can be passed on to future generations.Finally, the computerized systems provide a communal setting thatprovides an opportunity to explore the contents of the research archiveand their personal reflections in a social community setting. Thesethree supporting foundations can be implemented in one or morestructured, computer-managed databases presented to remote users througha computerized interface to the databases.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the major elements of oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the major components of an archiveserver computer.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a portion of a hierarchy of lifeissue tags.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing the major components of aspiritual community server computer.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the relationship betweencommunities in the spiritual community and the archive.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing the major components of a personalreflections book server computer.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing a first page interface to thepersonal reflections book server.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing a second page interface to thepersonal reflections book server.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing a first embodiment of a userinterface to personal reflections book server.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart showing a method of using one embodiment of thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION System Overview

FIG. 1 shows the major elements of a system 100 that can implement thepresent invention. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the computerizedsystem 100 utilizes three separate server systems, namely an archiveserver 110, a spiritual community server 120, and a personal reflectionsbook server 130. Each of these servers 110, 120, 130 uses a set ofsoftware instructions or interfaces stored on a non-volatile,non-transitory, computer readable medium 112, 122, 132, respectively,such as a hard drive or flash memory device. A programmable digitalprocessor 114, 124, 134, such as a general purpose CPU manufactured byIntel Corporation (Mountain View, Calif.) or Advanced Micro Devices,Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.), accesses and performs the software. To improveefficiency, the processors 114, 124, 134 may load software stored inmemory 112, 122, 132 into faster, but volatile RAM 116, 126, 136. Dataoperated upon by the software can also be stored in non-volatile memory112, 122, 132 and retrieved into RAM 116, 126, 136 for analysis,recording, and reporting. The software typically includes operatingsystem software, such as LINUX (available from multiple companies underopen source licensing terms) or WINDOWS (available from MicrosoftCorporation of Redmond, Wash.).

Each of the server systems 110, 120, 130 further includes a networkinterface 118, 128, 138 to communicate with other computerized devicesacross the digital data network 150. In one embodiment, the network 150is wide area network such as the Internet or a TCP/IP-based Intranet,and the network interfaces 118, 128, 138 each include TCP/IP protocolstacks for communicating over the network 150. The network interfaces118, 128, 138 may connect to the network 150 wirelessly or through aphysical wired connection. The network interfaces 118, 128, 138 can alsobe used to provide communication between the servers 110, 120, 130, suchas over a local area network 140.

The computerized system 100 is shown in FIG. 1 as three separate serversystems 110, 120, 130 to emphasize the distinct services provided byeach of these systems 110, 120, 130. Each of these separate serversystems 110, 120, 130 can be implemented on a single computer with asingle processor 114, 124, 134. Alternative, each server system 110,120, 130 could also implemented using a network of computers alloperating according to the instructions of the software. In fact, thesystem 100 could easily be implemented on a single computer system usingone or more processors.

The computerized system 100 provides access to data on the servers 110,120, 130 over the network 150 to a user computer system 160. The usercomputer system 160 could be similar in construction to the serversystems 110, 120, 130 that make up system 100, utilizing ageneral-purpose processor such as those provided by Intel Corporation orAdvanced Micro Devices. Alternatively, the user computer system 160could be a portable computing device such as a tablet computer or smartphone. These kinds of devices generally use specific operating systemsdesigned for mobile devices, such as iOS from Apple Inc. (Cupertino,Calif.) or ANDROID OS from Google Inc. (Menlo Park, Calif.), and alsofrequently use mobile specific processors, such as those designed by ARMHoldings (Cambridge, UK).

Each server system 110, 120, 130 manages a database and providesinterfaces to the database to one or more user computing systems 160over the network 150. The archive server 110 contains data aboutspiritual texts and life issues. This data is sometimes referred toherein as the “research archive.” The spiritual texts are taken from avariety of spiritual and religious beliefs referred to herein asdomains. One of the primary data elements maintained by the archiveserver 110 is an “idea.” Each idea contains or refers to a snippet orquotation from a spiritual text that is considered a foundational textfor one of the domains of the research archive. Each idea also containsor refers to a set number of commentaries on the snippet. Thecommentaries are written from the point of view of a particular domain,and each commentary is written in the context of a particular approachto that domain. Furthermore, each idea approaches the snippet of text inthe context of a particular life issue. Life issues are organized astags within a life issue tag hierarchy maintained by the archive. Thisis described in more detail below in connection with FIGS. 2 and 3.

The spiritual community server 120 provides a social networking space tothe user computer 160 organized around community spaces. Communityspaces may have closed memberships to outsiders, creating socialnetworking areas that are open only to a defined constituency. Examplesinclude clergy spaces that are open only to clergy of a particulardenomination and congregational spaces open only to known members of aspiritual congregation. Members of these communities use the spiritualcommunity server 120 to engage with each other over spiritual issues.

The personal reflections book server 130 provides the user computingdevice 160 with the resources necessary to plan, document, andcontemplate a personal life journey. The personal reflections bookserver 130 allows a user to record thoughts and actions, and plan forfuture actions and deeds. The personal reflections book server 130 isdeeply integrated into the archive provided by the archive server 110,allowing research into the archive to place meaning on the events andbeliefs recorded through the personal reflections book server 130.

The computer system 100 monitors users in all three aspects of thesystem 100. This allows the system 100 to track behavior and movementwithin the system, and to present suggestions for consideration by theusers. A user struggling with a life issue using the personalreflections book server 130 could be identified by the system 100, andrelated ideas from the archive server 110 could be suggested to theuser. Alternatively, the system could recommend conversations or otherinteractions maintained by the spiritual community server 120 that arerelated to that struggle. Paths taken by a user through the system 100can be recorded, and outcomes of various struggles, decisions, and lifeevents could be determined. This data could be aggregated to removepersonally identifying information and then shared with other users,researchers, and educational and spiritual institutions.

Archive Server

The archive server 110 of FIG. 1 can be implemented as one or more webserver computers 220 communicating with a user computer 200 over theWorld Wide Web 210, as shown in FIG. 2. The archive server computer 220uses a processor 230, a network interface 240, and web programming 250to provide web-based user interfaces such as user interface 202 over theweb 210. The user interface 202 provides the ability to access theresearch archive that is stored and managed by the archive server 220.The research archive is also accessed and used by the spiritualcommunity server 120 and the personal reflections book server 130.

In the preferred embodiment, the archive server computer 220 stores theresearch archive in a structured database 260. The archive can bemaintained as separate tables in a relational database, or as databaseobjects in an object-oriented database environment. The database 260 isstored in the memory of the research archive server computer 220 as dataand related database programming. The database programming directs theprocessor 230 to access, manipulate, update, and report on the data inthe database 260 as further described herein. FIG. 2 shows the database260 with tables or objects for a life issue tags 270, ideas 280, anddomains 290. The life issue tag database entity 270 contains anidentifier and a description for a particular life issue that may facean individual, such as “marriage” or “death of a parent.” The ideadatabase entities 280 each contain a snippet or quotation 282 from aspiritual text that is considered a foundational document for one of thedomains of the archive. The domains are categorizations of spiritual orreligious bodies or groups of believers, such as Sufism, SouthernBaptist, or Catholic. Domains are identified through the domain databaseentity 290. Each idea 280 contains a set number of commentaries 284 onthe snippet 282. The commentaries 284 are written from the point of viewof a particular domain 290. Consequently, each idea 280 is related toonly a single domain 290, while multiple ideas 280 can exist for asingle domain 290. Each of the set number of commentaries 284 in an idea280 are written in the context of a particular approach to the relateddomain 290. For instance, four commentaries 284 on the snippet 282 couldbe written from the point of view of i) a traditional approach withinthat domain, ii) a moderate approach within the domain, iii) ahistorical analysis approach within the domain, and iv) a modernapproach within the domain. In the preferred embodiment, all ideas 280in the archive contain the same number of commentaries 284 (such asfour, six, or eight) on the snippet 282, with the commentaries 284 allwritten from the same four (or six or eight) different points of view.Furthermore, each idea 280 approaches the snippet 282 in the context ofa particular life issue 270.

The life issue tags 270 are organized within a life issue tag hierarchy272 maintained by the archive database 260. This means that each tag 270may be assigned a parent tag 270, with individual tags 270 possiblehaving a parent tag 270, one or more sibling tags 270, and one or morechild tags 270. FIG. 3 shows one portion of an example life issue taghierarchy 300. In this example, the parent tag 310 deals with the lifeissue of relationships. Two child tags 320, 322 of the relationships tag310 are shown in FIG. 3, namely the marriage tag 320 and theparent/child relationship tag 322. The marriage tag 320 is itself shownwith seven child tags 330-342, namely a fidelity tag 330, a weddings tag332, a children in marriage tag 334, a death of a spouse tag 336, asupport of family tag 338, an in-laws tag 340, and a divorce tag 342. Inthis hierarchy 300, the marriage tag 320 has one parent tag 310, onesibling tag 322, and seven child tags 330-342. The fidelity tag 330 hasone grandparent tag 310, one parent tag 320, and six sibling tags332-342. The parent 320 and grandparent tag 310 can both be consideredancestor tags of the fidelity tag 330. Similarly, all of the tagsassigned reference numerals 320-342 are progeny tags of the relationshiptag 310.

In one embodiment, every tag 310-342 has only a single parent tag andtherefore is found in only one location in the hierarchy 300. In otherembodiments, a single tag 330-342 may have multiple parents and cantherefore be duplicated at multiple locations in the hierarchy 300. Forexample, the death of a spouse tag 336 could be a child tag to themarriage life issue tag 320, and could also be a child tag to a “death”life issue tag (not shown in FIG. 3). In some embodiments, every time adata element is associated with a life issue tag 270 it is automaticallyassociated with the parent of that life issue tag 270, or even allancestors of that tag 270. For instance, content assigned to the in-lawstag 340 would automatically be assigned to the marriage tag 320 and therelationship tag 310.

To make it easier to identify a relevant life issue tag 270, theresearch archive database 260 can assign one or more synonyms 276 toeach life issue tag 270. This allows the user interface 202 to accept akey word search for a particular life issue tag 270. The content of thelife issue tag entities 270 and the synonym entities 276 can then besearched for occurrences of those key words. If the key words were notfound in the title or description of any of the life issue tags 270 butwere found in the synonyms 276, the appropriate life issue tags 270could still be identified by identifying the life issue tags 270associated with the found synonyms 276.

Relationships between the database entities 270, 276, 280, and 290 inthe database 260 are represented in FIG. 2 using crow's foot notation.For example, FIG. 2 shows that a life issue tag 270 may be related to(or “associated with”) multiple ideas 280, but each idea 280 isassociated with only a single life issue tag 270. Similarly, a singlespiritual domain 290 will be associated with multiple ideas 280, witheach idea 280 having a snippet 282 from a spiritual text identified withthat domain 290, along with commentaries 284 written about that snippet282 from the context of that domain 290. Each idea 280, and thereforeeach of the commentaries 284 within that idea 280, is associated with asingle domain 290 (i.e., Catholic) and a single life issue tag 270(i.e., marriage). For example, if the document snippet 282 were achapter from the book of 1 Corinthians, the domain 290 were Catholic,and the life issue tag 270 were marriage, the fixed number (i.e. four)commentaries 284 in the idea 280 would all comment on how the 1Corinthians chapter relates to marriage from the Catholic perspective.As explained above, the commentaries 284 would discuss this issue frompre-established points-of-view, such as traditional, moderate, andmodern approaches, and through a historical analysis. Associations orrelationships between database entities 270-290 can be implementedthrough a variety of known database techniques, such as through the useof foreign key fields and associative tables in a relational databasemodel.

The establishment of the life issue hierarchy 272 is made possible bythe parent relationship 274. It is to be understood that the hierarchy272 could be created with a child relationship instead of a parentrelationship 274, or by using both child and parent 274 relationships.The parent relationship 292 of the domain database entity 290 shown inFIG. 2 indicates that the domains 290 can also be assigned parents, andtherefore have parent, sibling, and children domains 290.

One benefit of this construction of the archive database 260 is that itis possible to research the ideas 280 and document snippets 282 byidentifying a tag or tags 270 of interest. By selecting one or morereligious or spiritual domains 290, ideas 280 from that domain 290 thatare relevant to the life issue tag 270 are presented through the userinterface 202. The ideas 280 in the archive database 260 can then betraversed through the life issue tag hierarchy 272.

Of course, the table or object entities shown in FIG. 2 should not beconsidered to show actual implementation details of the database 260,since it is well within the scope of the art to implement this type ofdata using a variety of entity architectures. The entities shown areexemplary, intended to aid in the understanding of the data maintainedby the system database 260 in this embodiment. For example, it would bewell within the scope of the present invention to divide each idea 280into multiple tables or objects that are linked together throughdatabase relationships, instead of as a single database entity 280containing a document snippet 282 and commentaries 284. It is not evennecessary to implement these entities as formal tables or objects, asother database paradigms could also effectively implement these types ofdata structures. Throughout the remainder of this disclosure, thecontent and interrelationship of database structures will continue to beexplored using example data structures, but these structures should notbe considered to limit the way in which these databases can beconstructed.

Spiritual Community Server

The spiritual community server 120 of FIG. 1 can also be implemented asone or more web server computers 420 communicating with a user computer400 over the World Wide Web 410, as shown in FIG. 4. Like the archiveserver computer 220, the spiritual community server computer 420 uses aprocessor 430, a network interface 432, and web programming 434 toprovide a web-based user interface 402 to the user computer 400 over theweb 410. The user interface 402 provides the ability to access thesocial communities that are stored and managed by the spiritualcommunity database 440.

This database 440 is structured like the archive database 260 intodatabase entities linked through database relationships or associations.The spiritual community database 440 is shown in FIG. 4 as havingnumerous database entities 442-458. The user entity 442 is used tomaintain and store information about individual users that utilize usercomputers 400 to access the system 100. The user entity 442 can store ausername and password to control access to the spiritual communityserver computer 420 and even for the whole system 100. The user entity442 may also contain personal and demographic information about theusers, which can be useful for analyzing data for the user and about theuser. In one embodiment, for instance, users self-identify as belongingto one or more spiritual domains (such as those stored in databaseentity 290), which allows the system 100 to tailor informationaccordingly. Preferences for use of the system 100 can also be stored inthis entity 442 to allow each user to create a more customizedexperience while using the system 100.

Within the spiritual community database 440, each user 442 is associatedwith one or more communities 444, and each community 444 can beassociated with more than one user 442. As the spiritual communityserver 420 is designed to provide a public exchange of informationconcerning spiritual issues and the content of the archive database 260within communities, the assignment of users 442 to communities 444 isimportant to this experience. Users 442 participate by making usercontributions 446 to the community 444. A user contribution 446 mightbe, for example, a message post on a message board, participation in adialog with another user, the contribution of a photo, video or othercontent to a sharing location, or the sharing of a sermon with otherclergy of the same denomination. User contributions 446 are associatedwith a single user 442, and are usually associated with the singlecommunity 444 to which the contribution 446 was made.

Sometimes leaders of a community 444 may wish to provide content toother members of the community 444, which can be accomplished usingcommunity statements 448. These statements 448 may include a statementof faith for a religious community, ethical rules for a law enforcementcommunity, or the language of a bill for a community of lawmakers.Community-wide content 448 is not provided by an individual user 442 butby the community 444 as a whole or the leaders of the community 444. Insome circumstances, the user 442 that created the user contribution 446or users that create community statement 448 can control whether thecontribution 446 or statement is available for public viewing by allusers 442, or is only available to those users 442 that are members ofthat community 444. In other circumstances, pre-established rules forthe community 444 determine how broadly such contributions 446 andstatements 448 are shared, with these rules being changeable fromcommunity to community.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, communities 444 are divided intocategories 450. Example categories 450 include religious congregations,corporations, or educational institutions. One benefit of the use ofcategories 450 is that each category 450 of community 444 can haveparticular set of rules and restrictions 452 applied to it. Forinstance, the religious congregation category 450 may, by default, keepall community conversations private, meaning that only members of thecommunity 444 can see the user contributions 446 that have been added tothe community 444. Particular users 442 can be assigned particular roleswithin the community, such as a pastor, priest, or rabbi, or a churchcounsel member, and their ability to create community statements 448 andchange restrictions for the community 444 may be based on these roles.Categories 450 with default category restrictions 452 therefore make iteasier to create new communities with known roles and restrictions.

Life issue tags 270 and ideas 280, as discussed above in connection withthe archive database 260, can be assigned to user contributions 446 andcommunity statements 448. The user 442 or community 444 that created theitem 446, 448 can manually assigning the tags 270 and ideas 280 to theseitems 446, 448. For instance, a church community 444 may wish to make apublic statement on a particular life issue by creating a statement 448and manually assigning it a life issue tag 270. Alternatively, thechurch 444 may wish to add its own commentary to an established idea 280within the archive database 260 by creating a community statement 448having this commentary and directly assigning the relevant idea 280 totheir statement 448. Users can also comment on life issues and ideas bymanually assigning life issue tags 270 and ideas 280 to their communitycontributions 446. In addition, some communities 444 may createcommunity discussion groups around particular topics and invite members442 to contribute contributions 446 to those groups. By assigning a lifeissue tag 270 (or an idea 280) to those community discussion groups, allrelated user contributions 446 will be associated with that tag 270 oridea 280.

While many users 442 and communities 444 may manually assign life issuetags 270 to their contributions 446 and community statements 448, it isalso useful to automate the assignment of life issue tags 270 to thesespiritual community database entities 446, 448. The system 100accomplishes this by analyzing the text within the item 446, 448 whenthey are created, and then using key word and synonym analysis (usingentities 276) to relate these items 446, 448 to a life issue tag 270.For instance, if a user contribution 446 relates to a discussion on thedeath of their spouse, the system 100 may automatically assign lifeissue tag 336 to this user contribution 446. In one embodiment, lifeissue tags 270 are assigned using natural language processing to detectthe concepts or ideas that are present in the user's contribution 446,compare those concepts to the synonyms 276 in the research archivedatabase 260, and then map matching synonyms 276 back to a life issuetag 270.

One of the primary benefits of monitoring user contributions 446 andassigning life issue tags 270 to such contributions 446 is that thesystem 100 is able to intelligently guide a user 442 and makesuggestions relating to their use of the system 100. For instance, thesystem 100 may suggest that a user 442 who has commented on the death oftheir spouse review ideas 280 sharing the same life issue tag 270. Thesesuggestions take the form of archive idea suggestions 454 in the diagramshown in FIG. 4. If the user 442 has identified a preferred domain(i.e., religious preference), the archive idea suggestions 454 may belimited to ideas sharing the same domain 290 (or a parent domain 290).If the user 442 has expressed a preference for a particular author ofreligious texts or a particular book (either explicitly by manuallysetting a preference or implicitly through their use of the system 100),the suggested ideas 454 could be narrowed down to meet the preferencesof the user 442. In this way, a user 442 struggling with a life issue inthe spiritual community database 440 can be provided guidance toinformation relevant to the issue and to their preferences that is foundin the archive database 260.

The spiritual community database 440 is also set up to track actions 456taken by users 442. For instance, if the user 442 is a politician in apolitical community 444 such as a legislative body, the actions 456 mayinclude votes on a bill with ethical/religious implications, or publicpositions taken on controversial issues. Actions 456 may also includebeing elected or re-elected to office. While actions 456 trackactivities that relate to users 442, the events and outcomes databaseentity 458 track activities that relate to a community 444 as a whole.Such activities may include a church or a corporation taking a positionon same-sex marriage, or a school deciding to stop teaching sexeducation. By tracking actions 456 of individual users 442 and eventsand outcomes 458 of communities 444 over time, the system 100 can gainvaluable information on the impact particular decisions, statements,actions, and votes have on future events. For instance, a legislatorfrom a liberal district may take a more moderate stand on school prayerand then be voted out of office in the next election, or a church cantake a public stand on a controversial issue and then later report thatit hired additional clergy to meet the demands of a growingcongregation. This information could be useful to users 442 of thesystem 100 and therefore could be provided by the system when userscontemplate or research similar issues. By assigning actions 456 andevents/outcomes 458 to life issue tags 270, these relationships would beeasy for the system 100 to identify and share with users and outsideresearchers and scholars who may be interested in this information.

FIG. 5 shows a system 500 having a variety of communities 510-554 hostedin the spiritual community database 440. These communities can becategorized roughly into educational communities 510, political orgovernment communities 520, religious communities 530, corporatecommunities 540 and non-profit communities 550. In each of thesecategories 510-550 a variety of communities could be established. Someof these communities might be based around a specific organization. Forinstance, school communities 514 could be created that are maintained bya particular school. Students, educators, and parents of that schoolmight all be members of that community. Similarly, governmentcommunities 520 may be based around government entities 524, religiouscommunities 530 might be based around congregations 534, corporatecommunities 540 might be based around companies 544, and non-profitcommunities 550 might be based around non-profit entities 554. Othercommunities could be created around an individual's profession acrossorganizations. For instance, a community of public kindergarten teachers512 may be created as an educational group 510. Similarly, groups ofmayors 522, clergy 532, for-profit executives 542, and non-profitfundraisers 552 may create their own communities. These communities maybe closed, meaning that only users that attend a particular school orcurrently teach kindergarten in public schools are allowed as members.Of course, even closed communities may have some community statements448 and user contributions 446 that are made available for viewingoutside of the community.

In FIG. 5, all of these communities 510-554 are drawn around theresearch archive 560. This is because these communities 510-554 may alldraw from the archive 560 during their community conversations, and thesystem 500 may analyze these conversations in light of the life issuetags 270 in the archive 560 and then suggest ideas 280 within thearchive 560 for further analysis.

Personal Reflections Book Server

Just like the research archive server 110 and the spiritual communityserver 120, the personal reflections book server 130 of FIG. 1 can alsobe implemented as one or more web server computers 620 communicatingwith a user computer 600 over the World Wide Web 610, as shown in FIG.6. The personal reflections book server computer 620 also uses aprocessor 630, a network interface 632, and web programming 634 toprovide a web-based user interface 602 over the web 610.

This web-based user interface 602 allows the user of computer 600 toaccess and manipulate the data stored in the personal reflections bookdatabase 640. The purpose of this database 640 is to allow users tostore personal reflections about their own life journey, to recordimportant events in their life, to plan and act upon their own spiritualgoals, and to set down their thoughts on life in a way that can bereviewed and considered by future generations. While the personalreflections book server computer 620 is shown separate from the servercomputers for the spiritual community (420) and the research archive(220), they are described together in a single system 100 because of thebenefits provided when all three systems 220, 420, 620 and theirdatabases 260, 440, and 640 operate in conjunction with one another.They are also described as part of a single system 100 because all threesystems 220, 420, and 620 could be implemented on a single computersystem in some embodiments.

The personal reflections book database 640 maintains and updatesinformation about the users of the server 620. In the preferredembodiment, user information in the personal reflections book database640 is maintained in the same location as the user information 442 inthe spiritual community database 440, and therefore is referred to usingthe same reference numeral 442. It would be well within the scope of thepresent invention for the user information to be stored separately inthe two databases 440, 640.

In one embodiment, the personal reflections book database 640 presentsits content through the user interface 602 using a book paradigm. Thusthe user data 442 is associated within the database 640 with a pluralityof book pages 644. These pages 644 may include journal entries,reflections, and other textual entries made by the user; photographs,video, or other audio/visual content selected or created by the user;research notes and research path histories related to use of theresearch archive database 260; spiritual actions and events in theuser's past; spiritual paths, quests, and pilgrimages currently beingundertaken by the user; and other types of entries that may be useful asone contemplates and plans a spiritual life journey. In one embodiment,each page 644 relates to a separate topic, such that all thecontributions 646, 648, 650 that are assigned to a single page willshare a single topic. Topics may include such items as “my relationshipwith my father,” “my struggles with addiction,” or “living in my hometown.” Even though the contributions that share a topic are allconsidered part of a single page 644 in the database 640, it is notnecessary that the on-screen representation of that page 644 of dataactually take on the appearance of a physical page in a book, or thatall of the data appear on screen at once.

In the database 640, the book pages 644 are linked to the content thatmay appear within a page, such as book contributions 646 (which mayinclude textual and audio/visual content from the user or from thirdparties using the system 100, or from outside the system 100), spiritualactions 648 (which may include a recordation of past actions and eventsin a user's life as well as an ability to plan and suggest future acts),and a research trail 650 (which records and reflects back the user'spast use of the system 100). The research trail database entity 650 maytrack all of a user's use of the system 100 even if not all of thisdetail is reflected back to the user through a page 644 in the personalreflections book database 640.

It is anticipated that some of the personal reflections found in thebook contributions 646 will relate directly to ideas 280 in the researcharchive database 260. Thus the personal reflections book database 640 isshown in FIG. 6 with idea database entities 280 being linked to bookpages 644. These links can be created manually by users to indicate thata particular idea 280 in the archive is relevant to and should stayconnected to a page 644 in their personal reflections book. Users canalso manually assign life issue tags 270 to their personal reflectionsbook pages 644. While this manual assignment of ideas 280 and life issuetags 270 to pages 644 can be helpful to users, the ability of the system100 to automatically assign life issue tags 270 to book pages 644 iseven more powerful. By analyzing text found on the book pages 644 (suchas in the book contributions 646), and by comparing this text to thelife issue tags 270 (and their descriptions and synonyms 276), thesystem 100 can identify life issue tags 270 for a particular page 644without user intervention.

Once life issue tags 270 are assigned to a page 644, the system 100 cansuggest new ideas 280 from the archive database 260. These suggestedideas are shown as separate element 652 in FIG. 6, but they need notactually be implemented as a separate database element 652 withindatabase 640. In addition, the assignment of life issue tags 270 to apage 644 allows the system 100 to see connections between pages 644 inthe personal reflections book database 640 and community conversationsand events in the spiritual community database 440. This allows thesystem 100 to suggest (element 654 in FIG. 6) that a user read acommunity statement 448, consider a user contribution 446 to a community444, or even start participating in a community 444 (if they areeligible) based on the content of the user's book page 644.

It is contemplated that the user will use the personal reflections bookdatabase 640 to document and contemplate their life journey, effectivelycreating an autobiography of their spiritual life. The user mightaddress such questions as “who am I,” “what have I struggled with in mylife,” “what are my life goals,” and “what inspirations do I want topass down to my children and grandchildren,” with each of these topicsbeing organized as a separate page 644 in the database 640. In oneembodiment, the personal reflections book is kept confidential so thatan individual's private reflections can be added to the database 640without fear that other users will view these reflections. Because ofthis level of privacy, users that wish to share their contributions tothe personal reflections book database 640 are encouraged to accomplishsuch sharing through the spiritual community database 440 and userinterface 402. If the information in the personal reflections bookdatabase 640 is considered private and inwardly focused, informationadded to the spiritual community database 440 is considered public andoutwardly focused. In this embodiment, book contributions 646 can easilybe added to user contributions 446 to communities 444, but only throughan explicit process that verifies that the user wishes to publicly sharethis information.

In another embodiment, the system 100 shares a user's contributions tothe personal reflections book database 640 with others after the user'sdeath or upon some other triggering event. In order to limit the scopeof sharing after the triggering event, the user can identifiedparticular users that will be view their contributions 646 using thedescendant's database entity 656. For example, one user might name theiractual descendants in this entity 656. While the user remains alive,only that user can view their entries in the personal reflections bookdatabase 640. When the descendants verify to the system 100 that theuser has passed away, the system will give the descendants identifiedthrough entity 656 access to the contributions 646, 648, 650 that theuser made to the personal reflections book database 640. In oneembodiment, a named descendant 656 simply informs that system of thedeath of a user. If the user does not respond to an inquiry from thesystem 100 within a set time period, the triggering event will be deemedto have occurred and the user's data 646, 648, 650 will be shared. Othertriggered events could be defined, such as a son or daughter turning 18,or the birth of a grandchild. In one embodiment, the named descendantshave the ability to notify the system of the triggering event subject toa verifying communication attempt with the user. In other embodiments,more secure mechanisms for verifying the occurrence of a triggeringevent can be implemented, such as automatic monitoring of trusteddatabases or manual verifications of government issued certificates. Instill further embodiments, triggering events are tied to the calendar,with user contributions becoming public to descendants 656 on aparticular date. Of course, a user may elect to share theircontributions 646. 648, 650 with all interested users of the system 100upon the occurrence of the triggering event and not just with nameddescendants 656.

In order to simplify the creation of different types of pages 644 in theuser interface 602, page templates 658 are provided by the database 640.In one embodiment, these templates 658 are organized by topic. Templates658 could provide content for the user about the topic, such as a guidedspiritual practice to be followed, instructions for meditationpractices, or spiritual journeys or pilgrimages that may be of interestto the user. Users would use the page 644 created through thesetemplates 658 to follow the instructions and reflect on the performanceof these activities. Templates 658 could also be designed around topicsfor reflection such as “life goals,” and then guide the user on how thetopic could be addressed. The templates 658 could specify formatting apage 644, provide instructions or other information to the user, createa stub outline for commentary or reflection that could be completed bythe user, and even specify the formatting to be applied to photographsand video added to the page 644 by the user.

For example, FIG. 7 shows a user interface in the form of a page 700 inthe personal reflections book database 640. This user interface 700 wascreated through the use of a page template 658. This particular template658 relates to a spiritual pilgrimage to Bethany in Israel, as indicatedby the title 710. A user contemplating a trip to Israel could createthis page 700 based on the template 658. This particular templateincludes suggested background-reading 720, suggests travel plans thatmust be made 730 and places to visit 740, and encourages journal entriesand reflections 750 at each step of the process. The individual steps720, 730, 740 can be presented as a to-do list, allowing users to tracktheir process through the steps. In addition, the template may encourageusers to add their own photographs and video content 760 to the page700. The template 658 used to create the page 700 may include aparticular method to organize and display the photographs on the page ina manner consistent with the content of the rest of the page 700.Furthermore, the template 658 could provide or suggest stock photographs770 to supplement the user content 760. Of course, the content of thepage 700 need not be static. In one embodiment, the format andpresentation of the page 700 changes as the user progresses through thesteps 720, 730, 740 set forth on the page 700.

FIG. 8 shows a separate page interface 800 created through the use of asecond template 658. As reflected in the title 810, the page 800 wascreated with a template designed to help remember and reflect on thelife of a parent. In this case, the template 658 populated the page 800with an outline 820 that helps the user reflect on the life of theirparent. The template 658 may even suggest that the user locate photos830 of their parent to add to the outline 820. The user can fill in thisoutline 820, alter it, or ignore it altogether. The outline 820 could bechronological in nature (tell your father's life story), topical (whatwas your earliest memory of your father, or what did you learn fromhim), or both. Again, photographs 830 and video 840 added to the page800 could be formatted and presented as suggested by the template 658that formed the page 800, or the user could override these suggestionsand alter the presentation of this content 830, 840.

In FIG. 9, a user interface 900 is shown having a page 910 that containsjournal entries made by a user on the topic of perseverance. In thisembodiment, information about the user 920 is also shown in thisinterface 900, indicating that user's name is Jane Smith and that shehas identified herself with the religious/spiritual domain 290 ofCatholicism. Obviously, this information need not always be shown to theuser during her use of the system 100. This information 920 is shown inas part of interface 900 to reveal that the user has self-selected thisdomain 290. In FIG. 9, the system 100 has analyzed the journal entrieson page 910 and assigned one or more life issue tags 270 to theseentries. These tags 270 can be self-selected by the user, identifiedfrom the template 658 used by the user to create the page 910,identified based on the ideas 280, snippets 282, or commentaries 284from the archive that the user quoted (see item 912 on FIG. 9), or fromthe textual analysis for the content that the user personally enteredinto the journal entries on the page 910.

The life issue tags 270 assigned to the user can be used to suggestother ideas 280 from the archive database 260. In this case, a lifeissue tag 270 of perseverance may be assigned to this page 910. Inaddition, we know that Ms. Smith has identified herself with theCatholic domain 290. As a result, the system 100 may suggest at location930 other ideas from the archive database 260 related to both this lifeissue tag 270 and this domain 290. In this case, the system 100 issuggesting two ideas 280, one with a document snippet 282 from theGospel of St. Mark, and a second from Commentaries by Pope Pius II. Atlocation 940, the user interface 900 is suggesting that the user reviewmaterial found in the spiritual community database 440. These itemscould also be selected based on the life issue tags 270 assigned to thispage 910 and the domain 290 self-selected by the user. In this case, theinterface 900 suggest the user view a community statement 448 from acommunity 444 known as the “Conference of Catholic Bishops in the UnitedStates,” and to participate in a community 444 known as “US CatholicLaity.”

At element 950, the interface 900 is suggesting that Ms. Smith learn“from the paths of others.” Because the system 100 is tracking theactions of numerous individuals from across many religious/spiritualdomains 290 who are dealing with a variety of life issues 270, thesystem 100 will recognize patterns or paths through the system 100 thatothers have taken. For instance, the system 100 may recognize thatothers identified with the same domain 290 and dealing with the samelife issue 270 appear to find meaning in a particular idea 280, activelyparticipate in a particular community 444, and frequently undertake aparticular spiritual discipline using a template 658 in the personalreflections book database 640. When the system 100 identifies thesemultiple elements as being frequently or successful used by other users,the elements can be suggested together as a “path” that might be takenby others of the same domain 290 dealing with the same life issue 270.

These paths 950 can be collected and analyzed according to atwo-dimensional matrix formed by the domain 290 on one axis and the lifeissue tags 270 on another. Others who find themselves at the samelocation in the matrix may therefore learn from the paths through thesystem 100 taken by others before them. Similarly, the system 100 canuse this same matrix to find suggestions for locations 930, 940. Notethat because both the life issue tags 270 and the domains 290 are storedin a hierarchy, careful construction of the matrix will mean thatclose-by locations on the matrix may concern the same life issue 270approached from a similar but different domain 290 (Methodist as opposedto Presbyterian), or concern the same domain 290 dealing with similarbut different life issues 270 (death of a parent as opposed to death ofa grandparent). This means that empty or sparse locations in the matrixmay be supplemented with suggestions for nearby locations in the matrix.

Similarities between life issue tags 270 can be based upon the lifeissue hierarchy 272, with parent, child, and sibling tags 270 being moresimilar than unrelated tags 270 in the hierarchy. In embodiments wherecontent that is assigned to a child life issue tag 270 is automaticallyassigned to a parent life issue tag 270, the matrix may need to beaccessed multiple times in order to check the matrix for all life issuetags 270 assigned to that content. Since domains 290 can also existwithin a hierarchy using the parent relationship 292, domains could behandled similarly in determining similar domains 290 and even in theassigning of parent domains 290 automatically when child domains 290 areassigned to content.

This same matrix can be used to aggregate the information gained bymonitoring users of the system 100. The system 100 can identify thepathways through the databases 260, 440, 640 used by people identifiedin a particular domain contemplating a particular life issue (such asCatholics researching marital fidelity or Sufis researching divorce). Ifenough information is gathered, this information could be shared withoutside researchers, and educational and spiritual institutions. Forexample, by closely tracking the participation of users in the archivedatabase 260, the spiritual community database 440, and the personalreflection book database 640, the aggregated data could indicate whichpart of archive database 260 is most frequented by members in thenumerous divorce support communities 444. The information could alsoindicate whether this result changes based on the domains assigned tothe individual users. Furthermore, the data might indicate the result ofpositions taken (actions 456) by politicians on their chances of beingreelected, or the result of positions (458) taken by a church community444 on church membership. The data might could even reveal whatpercentage of users researching the infidelity life issue tag 270 alsoresearch the divorce life issue tag 270 within six months, and didcertain paths through the archive database 240 change this outcome.

While the suggestions 930, 940, 950 are shown on interface 900 astextual suggestions, it would be within the scope of this invention touse other techniques to make these suggestions. For example, an audioguide could accompany the user through the system 100 and, whensuggestions 930, 940, 950 are recognized as applicable, the audio guidecould audibly make the suggestion to the user. A moving representationof an intelligent guide could also be included in the interface 900 inorder to make these suggestions 930, 940, 950.

Furthermore, although the above discussion suggests making thesesuggestions 930, 940, 950 based primarily on the self-identified userdomain 290 and the assigned life issue tags 270, other elements could beused to make these suggestions. For instance, the system 100 couldmonitor the user's interaction with the research archive database 260and identify that the user had a special interest in ideas 280 havingsnippets 282 from a particular spiritual author. In this case, thesuggestions from the archive 930 could focus on other ideas 280 withsnippets 282 from the same author, even if the idea were associated witha different life issue tag 270. In this case, the life issue taghierarchy 300 would be particularly useful. For instance, if the page910 were associated with the life issue tag of divorce 342, and theuser's favorite author had snippets 282 in ideas 280 assigned to thelife issue tag of marriage 320 or relationships 310 (i.e., parent andgrandparent life issue tags 270), these ideas 280 could be suggested atlocation 930. Similarly, each comment 284 in an idea 280 could beidentified with the scholar that wrote the comment 284, and the system100 could recognize that the user had taken a special interest in othercomments 284 by that scholar. In this case, other ideas 280 with similarbut not identical life issue tags 270 having comments 284 by thatscholar could be suggested at interface location 930.

Finally, the techniques described to suggest content through interface900 to users of the personal reflections book database 640 from theother databases 260, 440 could be used in other contexts. For example,the user interface 202 to the research archive database 260 couldidentify the domain 290 and life issue tag 270 of the idea or ideas 280currently being reviewed in the archive database 260. Using thisinformation, the interface 202 could suggest meditative practices,journal entries, or spiritual disciplines that the user could undertakeusing the personal reflections book database 640, or suggest communitycontributions 446, statements 448, community conversations or evenentire communities 444 that may be of interest in the spiritualcommunity database 440.

Method

FIG. 10 shows a method 1000 that might be used in connection with thedescribed system 100. This method 1000 starts at step 1010 by providinga user interface 202 to a research archive database 260. At step 1020,the system provides a user interface 402 to a spiritual communitydatabase 440. Similarly, at step 1030 the system 100 provides a userinterface 602 to a personal reflections book database 640.

After providing access to these databases 260, 440, 640, the system 100assigns (at step 1040) life issue tags 270 to the content displayed onthe user interface 202, 402, 602. This content can be user created, inwhich case the life issue tags 270 can be assigned using textualanalysis of the user created content as described above. The contentcould also be pre-created, such as ideas 280 in the research archivedatabase 260, in which case the life issue tags 270 may have beenpre-assigned in the databases 260, 440, 640 before the user elected toview that content. Finally, at step 1050, the system 100 suggests to theuser additional content from one or more of the database 260, 440, 640.The additional content is selected by comparing the life issue tag 270assigned to the currently viewed content with the life issue tag 270assigned to the suggested content. At step 1060, additional content fromthe databases 260, 440, 640 is suggested by comparing a domain 290assigned to the user with a domain 290 assigned to the suggestedcontent. Obviously, steps 1050 and 1060 can be combined such that thesuggested content shares both a domain 290 and a life issue tag 270 withthe content currently be viewed by the user. Additionally, as suggestedabove, a matrix could be created with the domain 290 on one axis and alife issue tag 270 on another axis, and the matrix location of theviewed content can be used to select the suggested content. In caseswhere the matrix location is empty or sparse, content for nearbylocations in the matrix may be suggested instead. Finally, at step 1070,a sequence of steps is suggested to a user based on the steps taken byother users, where the suggested steps are based upon a domain 290assigned to the user and the life issue tag 270 assigned to thecurrently viewed content.

The many features and advantages of the invention are apparent from theabove description. Numerous modifications and variations will readilyoccur to those skilled in the art. For example, although the abovedescription implies that the databases 260, 440, and 640 are completelyseparate databases, it would be a simple matter to implement thesedatabases in a single, computer-implemented database system. Thedescription of these elements as separate databases should not implythat they must exist on separate physical computing devices, or thatthey must be logically separated into separate database structures.Rather, this description merely means that the data found in thedatabase 260, 440, and 640 can logically be divided into three differentdata collections. Since such modifications are possible, the inventionis not to be limited to the exact construction and operation illustratedand described. Rather, the present invention should be limited only bythe following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A server computing machine for spiritualresearch, reflection, and sharing comprising: a) a network interfaceproviding data and a user interface to a remote computing device over acomputerized network; b) a processor that is controlled via programminginstructions; c) a non-transitory computer readable memory; d) databaseprogramming stored on the non-transitory computer readable memory andperformed by the processor, the database programming managing a databasethat is transformed during operation by the database programming, thedatabase programming managing: i) an archive database having: (1) aplurality of idea database entities each having an excerpt from aspiritual document and at least one commentary about that excerpt; (2) aplurality of life issue tag database entities each having a life issuetag that identifies a life issue; (3) relationships between the ideadatabase entities and the life issue tag database entities; ii) apersonal reflections book database having (1) a plurality of userdatabase entities each having information about and identifying a user,(2) a plurality of book contribution database entities each havingpersonal reflections book content, and (3) relationships between theuser database entities and the book contribution database entities; iii)a spiritual community database having: (1) a plurality of communitydatabase entities each having information about a community; (2)relationships between the community database entities and the userdatabase entities defining membership in the communities; (3) aplurality of community contribution database entities each having acommunity contribution; (4) relationships between the community databaseentities and the community contribution database entities identifyingthe community for contributions.